Elephant Butte then north

Sunday, November 9, 2008

In the morning we drove to the Elephant Butte State Park near T or C. Once again, we have the beach to ourselves. We’ll stay here until we pick up our mail on Wednesday or Thursday then head slowly north to Suzanne’s house on Saturday.
We stayed sometimes on the beach, sometimes in the campground depending on the weather. Met a really nice Lazy Daze couple. David Roderick and Nola Woodbury from Eugene, OR. They are travelling for a year or so while deciding what to do next. They are heading to Las Cruces to work on a Habitat For Humanity house with a group of Escapees. What a great idea. We’re going to check into it when we get home.
Left Elephant Butte on Saturday morning. A neighbor in the campground suggested we stop at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro. We did and had a wonderful day. Thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese make this area their winter home. We saw two eagles, some hawks, ducks, one ring neck pheasant, some elk, and of course, endless numbers of cranes & geese.
After that we went to the Sandia Casino off I-25 north of Albuquerque. Treated ourselves to the buffet. Oink! Oink! Staying in the casino parking lot tonight.

Deming then back to Elephant Butte

Tuesday:

Stopped at an RV supply store to buy the legs for our new heater. Camping World was also out of them. After that we drove to the Elephant Butte State Park near Truth or Consequences, NM. One of our favorite campgrounds. We are the only people camping on the entire beach. The campgrounds with electrical hookups are about ½ full but there is no one on the beach. Wonderful. We just open the door and let Gopher out. She loves it. The weather is supposed to turn much colder tomorrow with lows in the low 30’s. Will get to put our new heater to good use.

Wednesday:


Enjoyed a quiet, off-the-road day. Caught up on the mail. Made phone calls. Took care of business. Did some repairs. It’s very, very windy. 25 to 35 mph. Sand & tumble weeds blowing everywhere. A cold front came through today. Supposed to get near freezing tonight.

Thursday/Friday:

Drove to Deming and stayed at the Rockhound State Park. Toured the visitors’ center. Rockhound SP is in the Little Florida Mountains. “Visitors can find a variety of rocks and minerals, ranging from silica, quartz crystals, chalcedony, agate, common opal, jasper, thundereggs, and geodes. Visitors are welcomed to take 15 pounds of rock per person from the park”. My father would have really enjoyed this place. He collected rocks from all his travels.

Saturday:

Went into Deming. Stopped by a very nice City park that used to be a gravel pit. It’s been landscaped and has a very nice multi-use path. Searched around for a grocery store other than Wal-Mart. There are none. There used to be two but they had to shut down after Wal-Mart opened. Stayed at the Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming. It’s an Escapee park. Escapees is an RV organization we belong to. The RV park isn’t much; basically a parking lot with utility hookups. The people here are very friendly. Several stopped by to say hello.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

In the morning we drove to the Elephant Butte State Park near T or C. Once again, we have the beach to ourselves. We’ll stay here until we pick up our mail on Wednesday or Thursday then head slowly north to Suzanne’s house for Thanksgiving.